Samantha Monk, director of AI at Meltwater (meltwater.com), an online media monitoring company, leads an informative discussion on the power of media monitoring. From news to social media, Meltwater monitors nearly everything that is relevant for their 28,000 clients worldwide. Meltwater utilizes AI to search billions of documents in real time, tracking impact and sentiment analysis to give businesses greater insight into their competitors, and a deeper knowledge of their industry in general. For as Meltwater sees it, a broad understanding of competition within a specific industry can lift a company into an advantageous position.

Of particular interest to Monk currently is Meltwater's newest product, Outside Insight. Outside Insight is an online resource created to assist executives and decision makers, business minds and investors as they reposition themselves into an emerging digital world. By using machine learning, Meltwater's data scientists can scour enormous data sets to spot trends and signals that could be extremely important for clients to be aware of and respond to. From tracking competitor growth, earnings reports, to potential supplier difficulties, their platform can help companies and businesses move forward while circumnavigating potential roadblocks and impediments to growth and success.

The media expert details some of Meltwater's recent successes, such as their monitoring of the relationship between news and social media sentiments regarding cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency pricing. By using their internal models and studying investor outlook and various sources of media coverage, Monk states that Meltwater was able to calculate a 12-hour forecast of pricing, with only a very small margin of error. Monk expects to release these types of investor-oriented products for individuals and the banking and financial sector in the coming months and years.

The AI director states that powerful insight and forecasting is possible due to a combination of three important aspects which are as follows: computing power is significantly greater and growing, AI is advancing, and the sheer volume of data that companies are leaving online is increasing. She details how the insightful information gathered can be pushed to clients via traditional reporting methods, apps, or dashboard tools, whatever works for a client's particular needs. And while the local mom and pop doughnut shop may not find the data useful, most businesses are dropping a significant amount of data online; thus many companies and businesses will certainly be able to put Meltwater's data to use, to help advance their growth and avoid potential problems. And by cross referencing external data with their own internal data and feedback, companies and businesses can more easily find their way, on a path to efficiency and success.